New cornerbacks Marcus Peters, right, and Aqib Talib make their debuts with the Rams Monday, Sept. 10, 2018 in Oakland. Peters comes to the Rams with a reputation as a talented, ball-hawking risk taker who has occasionally let his emotions get the best of him on the field. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

THOUSAND OAKS – “Perception,” Marcus Peters repeats back, a well-worn sense of indignation in his voice. Over three seasons in Kansas City, as he established himself as the most aggressive and unpredictable corner in the league, that word has been watered down and stripped of meaning. Still, hearing it again leaves a sour taste in his mouth.

“Y’all throw perception on it, and it becomes reality for you guys until you get to know us,” he scoffs.

This is his first meeting with the media since joining the Rams, who gave up just a fourth-round pick and a second in 2019 for an elite young corner with the most interceptions in the NFL since 2015. It’s March, just a few weeks since he was shipped out of Middle America and into Southern California, and no one knows Marcus Peters in L.A. yet. But they are familiar with the perception.

They know Peters was kicked off the football team at Washington. They know that he clashed with fans and coaches in Kansas City and that he was once suspended for throwing a penalty flag into the stands. They know, after drafting him 18th overall, that the Chiefs gave up with two years left on his rookie deal. They also know one of the best young players in the NFL, at one of the most important positions in football, playing on one of the league’s best contracts was suddenly, peculiarly available, and that only a few teams showed any interest at all.

Perception has something to do with that. Aubrey Pleasant understood that. So when Marcus Peters arrived in Los Angeles, he wanted to address it immediately. “This is a perception-based league,” Pleasant told him.

Sign up for Home Turf and get exclusive stories every SoCal sports fan must read, sent daily. Subscribe here.

The young defensive backs coach was already one of the Rams most respected assistants – in large part, he says, because of open and honest communication. So with the Rams’ new No. 1 corner, Pleasant knew he needed to be up front.

“Look, I’m a realist,” Pleasant says. “Here it is, you’re in the final two years of your rookie contract, and you’re in a situation where they move you to a different team. You sit back and you look at it, and no matter who’s right and who’s wrong, no matter what we believe or don’t believe, it happened for a reason. As a man and as a player, sometimes you need to look inside and ask, ‘What is it that I did? Or what is it that they saw that put me in this situation? And what is it that I can do to take my game to the next level.’”

Peters isn’t interested in discussing that publicly. At least, not now. Ahead of his Rams debut and his return home to Oakland, the place he still feels most comfortable, he declined comment for this story. But in Los Angeles, the perception of the city’s new most polarizing player has been overtly positive heading into Monday night’s opener against the Raiders. Teammates have raved about his abilities and his love of the game – two things that were never questioned in Kansas City. Coaches, meanwhile, see a player who has taken responsibility for his past.

“Really impressed, just with him as a person,” Sean McVay said. “He’s been a joy to be around.”

***

Before March, the Rams two new corners had only met briefly, through Peters’ cousin, Marshawn Lynch. But Aqib Talib was already an admirer from afar.

They were introduced at that first news conference, a pair of polarizing corners, at opposite junctures of their careers. That day, Talib publicly took Peters under his wing. “Marcus will follow me,” he said. In Peters, he saw a younger version of himself. Talib understood his passion. More than that, he understood how it might be misinterpreted.

He’d fought those same battles years ago. At 32, Talib had long put that behind him. This late in his career, he’d come to L.A. for fit and comfort reasons – to play in a scheme he knew, with a coordinator in Wade Phillips whom he respected.
Says teammate Lamarcus Joyner of new Rams cornerback Marcus Peters: “You always hear people say, ‘This guy gambles a lot. “But what you don’t hear is how smart of a player he is.” (Photo by Michael Owen Baker)

With Peters, he also happened to find a perfect match across the field, a pairing the Rams feel could be the best in the league. They were cut from the same cloth – cerebral ballhawks who loved the game, sometimes to a fault. They both knew how to get into quarterbacks’ heads, to watch their eyes scan the field, to bait them into mistakes. “They don’t just go by-the-book on every single play,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff said during training camp.

Over his three seasons in Kansas City, Peters certainly never hesitated to go off-book. A study of his 19 career interceptions illustrate a prolific understanding of scheme and situational defense. Four of those 19 came on remarkable plays in which Peters broke away from his man entirely to jump the route of a different receiver.

In Week 6 of his rookie season, his first of these plays, Peters abandoned a streaking Adam Thielen on a fly route, only to jump in front of Teddy Bridgewater’s underneath pass to Mike Wallace less than a second later. Twice in three seasons, Peters has baited the Chargers’ Philip Rivers into interceptions on similar plays. Even with the Rams, he’s already flashed that freelancing magic. While scrimmaging with Baltimore this preseason, Peters left his man on one play and crossed the width of the field to intercept Joe Flacco.

“That’s just a feel for the game,” Talib says. “It’s something in you.”

But in Kansas City, Peters’ propensity for unpredictability was at times its own matter of perception. While his freelancing with the Chiefs led to more interceptions than any other NFL player, some viewed him as a risk-taker on the field, willing to break from his responsibilities and throw caution to the wind for a big play.

The line, between those two notions, can be razor thin in the NFL, especially for a cornerback as aggressive as Peters. But on this subject, his new teammates spring to Peters’ defense. They reject any premise that reduces Peters’ instincts to a series of calculated risks.

“You always hear people say, ‘This guy gambles a lot.’” safety Lamarcus Joyner says. “But what you don’t hear is how smart of a player he is.”

This particular perception bothers Talib, who has been known as a risk-taker himself. “It’s a stereotype,” he suggests.

“When Richard Sherman (makes a play), they call it smart,” Talib says. “When Marcus do it, they call it a calculated risk. Maybe because one got kicked out of college and one went to Stanford.”

You can understand why Peters would want to keep out of this conversation. He’s learned from his past missteps. He isn’t looking for attention. Quite the contrary, in fact.

That’s not to say he will go quietly about his business as the Rams’ top shutdown corner. Peters’ playing style won’t allow for that. His pairing with Talib will undoubtedly be the best of his career, and in Phillips’ scheme, his ball-hawking nature will be on full display. A career year could be in store for a corner already among the league’s elite.

Still, Pleasant wants to clear up any misunderstandings. He wants Peters to understand the value of his brand. In Los Angeles, he sees an opportunity for him to open up. “There are things that just need to be introduced and announced that people don’t understand,” he contends.

At his opening news conference, Peters took an opportunity to clarify one of those misunderstandings. While asking about the perceived risk the Rams were taking in trading for him, a reporter used the phrase “off-the-field concerns.” Peters’ gaze sharpened.

He’d never been arrested, never gotten a DUI. He’d made mistakes, sure – but those were all on-the-field, in the heat of a game he loved, and he’d already copped to those. But the line between perception and reality still blurs. So he ignores it.

“It’s cool,” Peters said, “because I don’t really care because at the end of the day, I go home, sit back with my family, and that’s who I’m really chilling with. That’s it.”

But as he finished explaining, Peters looked to his left at McVay. He leaned in.

“That cool?” he asked his new coach, hopeful that his answer sufficed. McVay nodded.

“OK, cool,” Peters said. He smiled, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Ryan Kartje is a sports features reporter, with a special focus on the NFL and college sports. He has worked for the Orange County Register since 2012, when he was hired as UCLA beat writer. His enterprise work on the rise and fall of the daily fantasy sports industry (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/industry-689093-fantasy-daily.html) was honored in 2015 with an Associated Press Sports Editors’ enterprise award in the highest circulation category. His writing has also been honored by the Football Writers Association of America and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Ryan worked for the Bloomington (Ind.) Herald-Times and Fox Sports Wisconsin, before moving out west to live by the beach and eat copious amounts of burritos.